Vacuman

Spill the beans...what's your horror story? What dog did you buy that died before you could get it home?

Surely we've all been there, the heart ruling the head and resulting in an impulse purchase that you regretted every time you had to look at it?

No contribution from me on this one but I'm sure one day I will lose my self-control.

STeve

iTrader: (11)

dont give me that Stan a man of your talents has made a cock up somewhere

stevos

I bought an Audi A4 avant 2006 2.0 do from the car auctions one night got it home and all seemed good. Had a small oil leak and found it to have a hairline crack in the block fuck knows how that happened. Anyway put it back through the auctions and lost nearly 2 k on it between the buyer and sellers premium and the fact it sold for less than I paid for it.
I have bought loads of cars from auction and never had a problem till that one. I learned two things never to buy another auction car and that A4s are total shit and plagued with problems (read up a lot on them after I bought it).

STeve

iTrader: (11)

now if this was in the non car section fook me would it be filled with stories

muz

Too many to list. I have the drama that I get an idea in my head and it runs away with me.
Like the time I went to see Jano for a brew one Saturday and bought a car because I had the money and it was there then the wife found out and it literally nearly sparked a divorce.
Or when I went to AH fabrications to have some tabs welded on a GRS intercooler and ended up ordering a bespoke radiator and intercooler.
Or the 2.1 ZVH Fiesta sleeper I bought just for the engine and management and they turned out to be the only UNUSABLE parts fitted.
Or the Cosworth Replica I bought on eBay without viewing and was delivered while I was at work which my brother put on a ramp and the rear chassis rails disintegrated under its own weight.
I've made a lot of mistake in my time

155lee

iTrader: (10)

Nova hatch 2.5v6.
Flew to Cardiff for it,looked good in the pics but needed some bits removed and put back to standard.
Met the guy,no interior except front seats and dash,holes in boot floor letting exhaust gas in from leaking exhaust.
Rats nest of wires at the ecu area,worn out shocks,digi dash didn't work,no rear brake flexis but I found most of that out on the way home.
Stopped to fuel up and noticed there were no door locks,or alarm fob for a fancy alarm system so the only way to lock it was put the button down,shut the door then when you want in crawl through the boot.
After I spent a packet on it it was ok,not good just ok.
Sold it for half what I paid,not half what I spent but was glad to see the back of it.
Seen it years later on eBay being broken so entailed the seller telling him how crap a thing it was and how much hate I still had for it,he completely agreed and that was why he was breaking it.

mick

iTrader: (1)

in all honesty anything that my wife found out about

Vacuman

LOL - I was lucky. Sold my pups at a profit back in the day.

Caddyshack

I recently wanted an hpi Baja Rc car so put some fairly cheeky bids on eBay, these are pretty expensive so I put around £600 on 2, I flipping won both, not expecting to....but it gets worse, when I went to pick up win 1 and the bloke had another amazing one he spent £3k on and I ended up buying that too. So now with 3 I bid on another variant and was outbid so I bought a different one only to watch the higher bids retract on the first, now am am 12 hours away from 5 of them....actually 6 as I already had one....

RichieST

iTrader: (2)

20" wheels for the car, looks nice but rides like shite

Mr S1

iTrader: (2)

Mk3 Mondeo TDCi.

'Nuff said.

Fudgey

iTrader: (4)

I sold my impreza to buy a snsible cheap to run car. An Audi A3 1.9 TDi sport Quattro.

Within 5 mins of driving it away from the seller i hated it.
Cost me half as much as i paid for it to keep it going in the 18 months i owned it.

And in Jaunary i fell off my bike on the way home from due to a road defect, so submitted a claim to the council, and bought a new bike a day later as i was pissed off and have some sportives to train for...

The wife was not fucking happy when she founfd that one out

Mr S1

iTrader: (2)

Mine's never happy mate she's a woman after all....!!

alexno1dj

slightly less glamorous but bought an escort van from an exhaust company in Birmingham, stupid and naive and resulted in cam belt failure 2 days later.

JasonPD

R reg mondeo from the auctions years ago, looked OK(ish) and was well chuffed when I got the key and drove off only to find the car would not engage 2nd gear at all, gutted... Sold it on eBay 2 weeks later (declaring the fault) and thankfully lost less than 100 quid I think

Glenn_

iTrader: (1)

So good stories. I wouldnt say it was a purchase mistake but more like a selling mistake.

I sold my old sierra gt with escos alloys and full cossie cloth trim for 200 quid to a friend of mine.

costina

iTrader: (1)

Hillman Hunter ebay purchase140 miles away from me. Week left on mot on disabled tax. Mate took me up to collect. On the way back the oil light came on and went off when reving it. Came to a roundabout with mate behind im at the front and while revin the tits out of it to keep the oil light out my mate thinks ive gone and goes into the back of me. Engine stalls then the battery is nearly flat managed to start,checked on my mate who is looking at his diesel metro pissing out fluids from the mangled front end. He gets a ride on a low loader i carry on.
8 miles from home just pulling out the bloody pile o shite seized solid. Called another mate for a tow home.

Never again.

vinnyvangough

A transit recovery truck.
Cost £1200, couldn't use it with anything heavier than a Fiesta, due to licence restrictions.
Started to rot pretty bad, wiring was a complete mess, (Banger boys had "re-wired it), engine would still run if the lights were on even if you removed the key. Turn lights off and the thing would stop.
Sold it 12 months after buying it for £350

The Youth.

iTrader: (1)

In 2005 I bought an xr4x4 on ebay for £126 it had damage on the rear 1/4 from the owner doughnuting it into a wall, it also had a bit of rust tho not too bad, the idea was to fix it up and do 1 or 2 track days then scrap it, fast forward to 2016 its still my race car.....and i'm over 30k lighter lol


steve

visa_broke

Some good one's here ^

Basically anything involving a car I am starting to consider a regret.

Cheap cav sri off ebay (few hundred quid) went down to other side of weston super mare. Car was rough as hell but I only wanted the engine for a swap. Oil light was on around 5 miles from home, drove quite a lot of the way home with reports from my father of smoke when under load. Got fed up of the heap on the way and thought lets see what it will do, got up to 120 plus and all the dash lights come on as it cuts out and sticks me on the hard shoulder. We ended up having to go home to get a tow bar and come back for it as we couldn't cut a belt to use as a make shift tow rope. Got it home and it damn well started, would tick over and rev but above around 2k sounded like a brick in a tumble dryer. Stripped off the small amount of good stuff and scrapped the heap.

Bought a r reg clio 1.2 for my ex to learn to drive in, she cheated on me, so that went to a mate without her knowing.

Went with a mate to pick up a nova that was heavily modded, stripped out, big wheels, digi dash etc. Drove home fine. Next day cut out at a junction and caught fire so that was a waste of money.

paceo

iTrader: (5)

my vr6, more rust than expected once we started cutting it open LOOOL

Fordmad!

Bought an ax gt5 1 owner car for £130 6 years ago. Was abit rotten so I broke it. Later realised how rare they were apparently on 5 taxed on the road at the time. Bloody regret it now

nice_head

iTrader: (2)

Nissan pulsar GTI-R, within 4 months of owning it the clutch, gearbox and engine all went on me

STeve

iTrader: (11)

only one story from me to interject was working at a ford dealership back in 87 when I noted a mk2 granada 2.8i special in used cars for sale, liked the look of it and bought it and within 2 weeks of owning it someone robbed the seats, I replaced them and 3 weeks later up at the chelsea cruise london some plonka caved the side in driving a fricking camaro, got it back home from the bodyshop and a week later started it to head off to work and it stripped the timing gear teeth, that was it sold it but this later come back to haunt me as I saw it at ford fair last year and current owner paid £9k for it and I want it again

ptgladstone

Sending my car to motorscope! Took me for load of money , blow my engine up cost me 5K in total including there costs and putting right there mistakes

Oranoco

The MK3 Golf GTi I spent months hunting for. Nothing wrong with the car just had to watch my bitch of an ex drive it away when she left knowing she wouldn't give 2 stuffs for it. Probably dead now as she couldn't drive for toffee.

sam1989

As above mk3 mondeo tdci, also focus tdci, don't understand why ford can't build a reliable diesel anymore, I would rather have mk1 mondeo diesel with leaky fuel pump that I can mend then a new mondeo that even ford can't really find what's the problem,

london_chris

bought a stinker of an escort rs turbo years back as i needed the engine for another car, the car i bought was rooten but wasnt bothered as i only wanted the engine,
driving back, cambelt snapped, wrote the head off and the valve cracked the piston crown.
lol

Eigdoog

MG ZS! Had no power whats so ever! I mean i had a Nissan note past me like i was nothing and kept breaking down.

Also when i spoke to people i got told they handle pretty well but mine spun me out

When i traded it in i broke down twice on the way there! Once i got it there i gave them the keys and hoped they didn't start it up before i left, they didn't

Maybe mine was just a shagged one? One thing though it started on the coldest mornings without fail! I mean it was coved in about 8 inches of snow and started as soon as i turned the key! But then i got stuck after moving it 3-4 foot Left it there and walked home.

steppy

A kawasaki green s2 rs turbo, i bought it in the dark and i didn't notice at the time of getting it that the vin plate was missing there was blingy plates on the slam panel, when it was noticed I then checked for floor numbers, guess what it had been perfectly cut out and a plate welded in, when I ran checks on the reg found out it was stolen and was never found and had about 5 colour changes, i soon sent it back to the seller

3i Jim

My ST tdci money pit! Great car when it worked but fuck me it got expensive!

Adam-M

Lol I just changed the clutch, flywheel and gearbox on my mates st. One of the gearbox ball bearings came out the race and caused havoc

FORD RS MAD

iTrader: (1)

Bought a 'R' plate Escort to use for work, seemed a decent motor, then it started to loose water so I sold it on. Then had a Saxo VTR, with-in a month the rear axel failed and the clutch went so traded that in for a 08 Fiesta Zetec.

gingeRS

Not too much of a horror but bought a 2003 e39 for £3000 ish to keep my RS nice, in the three years I owned it various bits broke on it, it broke down several times, the mpg was poor, it needed work for each mot, I sold it for £1500 a month ago when the gearbox started to fail, ironically I used my focus every time the Bmw let me down, that's had 3 mots in the time, sailing though every time and never let me down until I killed the water pump on a track day, for some reason I still really liked the e39, but they are money pits now and I can see why they are all either cheap, or cherished and very expensive!

Pitbull69

Swapped my Octavia vRS for a 2002 Mondeo TDCI, wasnt insured to drive it at time of swap so selelr drove me around in it, he mentioned it wouldnt be as fast as my vRS which I thought was obvious, Done the swap, Swapped insurance over, went to take it on a quick run and fill it up with diesel, no power what so ever, Called out diesel doctor to find all 4 injectors at fault, plus various other issues, £800 minimum to put right and no guarantee it would run right after that, Took it to a garage a fair distance away to trade it in, thankfully the garage only cared about if it had a recent clutch as they was prone to going, had plenty of paperwork showing a very recent clutch, As I drove away from the garage in the MG ZR I traded it in for, the garage already had a customer take the mondeo for a test drive, I felt bad as I watched the mondeo break down behind me, Never did that car get insured again,

Glenn_

iTrader: (1)

There local to me and ive heard loads of horrow stories about them.

Glenn_

iTrader: (1)

BMW at there best matey.

AJC

iTrader: (6)

Bloody hell, love mine, 20,000 miles of no hassle

Bailes1992

I made two massive mistakes last year.

My totally reliable and utterly fantastic MK4 Mondeo had to go.

I decided I wanted a new Focus and the Facelift had just come out.
I ended up buying a brand new Focus Titanium 1.5TDCi.
The car has been back 20 times for various issues in it's sub 12 month life and is due to go back again next Tuesday for a few new issues.
Since day one it bogs down, hesitates and generally drives like a pig.
Ford have told me they know about mapping issues with the EGR valve but have no intentions of ever fixing it so I have to live with a pig of a car.
It should also do 90mpg on a run and I have to try really hard to get it above 60mpg.
I've had disgusting customer service from Ford Customer relations and I will NEVER consider owning another Ford.

My Missus again totally reliable and bulletproof KA had a serious case of rot and it was time to let go.

I armed with £2000 of her money decided to play it safe and buy a Citroen C3 from a well regarded local dealer.
It was on an 06 plate with 112k. Full Citroen service history inc a new head gasket and full head rebuild 8 months prior with a bill for nearly £2k.
It was raining however it looked mint. I jacked it up and had a look for any play and all seemed well.
I paid £1800 for it and gave it a proper look over the following weekend. I found a leaky shock, 3rd was whining and the whole one side of the car had been sprayed badly to make matters worse I found all the carpets inside the car utterly drenched.
Took the car back they shrugged their shoulders at the gearbox and told me it wasn't their problem and changed ONE shock.
When I kicked up a fuss about replacing one shock they told me I didn't know what I was talking about and there is absolutely no reason to change suspension parts in pairs.
3 weeks later the release bearing went and put a hole in the side of the gearbox.
Broke the car and lost £1500.

gus

iTrader: (1)

Buying the Doris a brand new car

She ruined that quite quickly

It's now at the big scrap yard in the sky